


too late to go back to sleep

by LittleHogwartsGirl



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Shameless Self-Indulgence, Tony POV, slight wicked spoilers but nothing that's not in the songs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 14:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4267515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleHogwartsGirl/pseuds/LittleHogwartsGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers go to see Wicked the musical. Stuff happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	too late to go back to sleep

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic posted to AO3. I also haven't really written MCU fic before. Anyway, I love Wicked and there was that flying monkey comment in the first Avengers movie and things spiralled. Thanks to my best friend [Effy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/elloquente) and also to Malin.  
> Title from Defying Gravity from Wicked. I just can't stop myself.

It begins when Tony hears Barnes, believing himself unobserved, singing Over the Rainbow under his breath. Then he does some digging, eavesdropping, enlists Romanoff to help out, whatever, and finds out that Cap and Barnes actually went to see the Wizard of Oz when it first came out in 1939.

"So old", he says, complaining, and then freezes completely as a number of possibilities occur to him. "Pepper!"

Pepper pads down the hall in socked feet and pokes only her head inside the room. "Yes?"

"That- the musical, with the witch!"

Pepper raises one eyebrow and enters the room properly. "The Wizard of Oz?"

"No no no no!" Tony says and barrels over to her, grabs her by the shoulders and looks her in the eye. "The new one. On Broadway. The green witch."

"Wicked? It's not exactly-"

"Wicked!" Tony says as if it's the answer to all his prayers. "Where is it?"

Placing her hands on his shoulders, Pepper steers him over to a chair and sits him down. "Broadway. Calm down and tell me what's up."

"Cap! And his... whatever the hell Barnes is. They saw the Wizard of Oz."

He can tell from the look on Pepper's face that she's starting to worry about him.

"In 1939, Pepper! They need to be updated!"

"They're not machines, Tony!" she says, but at least now she's laughing. "What are you actually talking about?"

Tony knows that he's got that gleam in his eye. "The Avengers are going to the theatre."

 

He gets Pepper to call the Gershwin Theatre box office for him, but as soon as she starts "but"ing her way through the call he yanks the phone from her hand and takes over. He's no good with sitting on the sidelines when there are important matters at hand.

"Can I speak to your manager?" he says into the phone, and then adds, "Please."

"Who is this?" says the lady on the other end.

"Tony Stark. Your manager?"

"No, I'm sorry sir, but she's not available. I told your boss this just a minute ago."

Tony twitches in annoyance. "My boss? Pepper is-", a look from Pepper, "she is my boss, yes. Uh, thank you for your time." He hangs up and then says into thin air, "JARVIS!"

"Getting the manager of the Gershwin Theatre on the line, sir."

Pepper takes over the phone calls and is bounced from the manager to the head of the Nederlander Organization, which owns the theatre, at which point she hands the cell phone back to Tony and leaves the room.

"Yes! Hello!" Tony says. "My name is Tony Stark, I would like to book the Gershwin Theatre for a company of", he does a quick headcount, "nine. Make it ten to be sure."

"Sir", says the voice on the other end of the line, "the Gershwin seats 1900."

"Ten is enough!" Tony's happy now. "When is convenient?"

"Any Sunday starting next week, except the 20th and over the holidays."

"Why only Sundays?" Tony's no expert, but that sounds like a rip-off to him.

The voice sighs. "Mondays through Saturdays there is a show playing, sir."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I know. Wicked, right? With the witch? That's what I'm booking for."

"We can't possibly send home 1900 people because you and your friends want a private performance, Mr Stark. The closest I could do is letting you book a private performance in July of next year."

"Next ye- Look, I'm not saying you should send them home", Tony protests. "Just... book them another date."

"This is Broadway, Mr Stark. People come from all over the world to see Wicked. We are not clearing the Gershwin for you. Book tickets for a regular performance like anyone else, book a private performance next year, or get off the phone."

Tony is so stunned he hangs up the phone out of pure confusion.

 

"Who's coming to the theatre?"

Tony's at the front of the room and the other Avengers (and Barnes) are watching him with blank faces. Barnes always looks blank, though, so Tony feels he can comfortably discount him. Barnes always does what Cap does anyway.

"What are we seeing?" Cap eventually says.

"Wicked!"

"Why?" Barton says from where he's perching on the armrest of Romanoff's chair. He's always perching on things.

"It's culture, Barton, it's good for you." Romanoff rolls her eyes. "I'm in if you're paying." She's not even looking at Tony but he knows the last remark is meant for him.

The still-slightly-creepy Maximoff witch kid shrugs her shoulders. Tony assumes it's a yes.

Thor nods. "I will see this theatre called Wicked." A pause. "What is it about?"

Pepper fills him in, voice just softly curling around the room. Tony catches the words "witches" and "green" and "blonde" and "Oz" and then "Jane", and then he stops listening. Instead he turns to Bruce, who's sort of looking out the window and fiddling with his sleeves and carefully but thoroughly avoiding Romanoff. Tony's given up trying to figure out what really happened between those two.

"Bruce", he says, almost softly, and then pointedly avoids Pepper's gaze. She always looks so annoyingly fond of him whenever he shows how annoyingly fond he is of Bruce. It's... well, annoying. "You coming with?"

"Yeah, might as well", Bruce says softly and smiles in every direction and no direction at all. Tony looks directly at him and nods once.

Then he turns to his real targets.

"Cap?"

Cap and Barnes have been having some sort of whispered conversation and ignoring the rest of them. No respect in either of them, seriously. They look up at the same time, Cap at least having the decency to look a little guilty while Barnes just looks blank as per usual. It's nice, Tony thinks, that someone around here has a per usual.

"What?" Cap says and raises his all-American eyebrows.

"Wicked. You two coming to see it?"

"What is it?" says Barnes without much of a change in facial expression.

Tony tries not to sigh and roll his eyes and only marginally succeeds.

"It's a musical. You coming or not?"

Cap looks at Barnes. Barnes looks at Cap.

"It's based on the Wizard of Oz", Romanoff chimes in as if by pure chance. Tony has never been so grateful.

"I want to see it", Barnes says quietly, more to Cap than to Tony. Tony can see in Cap's eyes the moment he decides to go, simply because Barnes wants to.

"Sure." Cap's looking at Barnes and smiling like he's looking at a soft kitten, not an ex-soldier ex-assassin of the approximate age of 97.

Ah, Tony thinks. Success.

He lets JARVIS book the tickets.

 

Tony refuses to dress up when the time comes. Pepper wears very high heels and looks amazing. Thor looks overdressed in his black suit but at least he's not in his cloak and armor. He has Jane with him and Tony won't say it but Jane is a little scary with her brains and her quick wit. For whatever reason, Jane and Maximoff are hitting it off, and Tony vows to never piss off either one of them. Romanoff is in a simple green dress and flat shoes and looks like a baby serial killer. Barton looks like he'd like a seat up among the rafters rather than in the mezzanine. Bruce had to be persuaded out of his sweatshirt, but now he looks put-together in a deep plum shirt Tony bought him once on a whim.

Barnes looks as blank as ever, and Cap flutters around him like a massive blond mother hen.

The lights fade as the orchestra begins playing. Tony has a hard time paying attention both to Cap's and Barnes' reactions as well as to the stage, and eventually Pepper takes his hand and digs her nails into it whenever he looks away from the musical for too long. The thing about dancing through life sounds a lot like him, and Tony wonders if he can charge them royalties for singing his tune.

When Galinda - Glinda, now? Tony's a little confused - and Elphaba finally get to see the Wizard Tony glances over towards Cap and Barnes. When he sees Barnes crying he thinks that maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all.

During the Act 1 finale Tony keeps looking over despite Pepper's nails digging into his palm. Cap's crying now, too. Then there are standing ovations at the of the first act, and Cap and Barnes are the first ones on their feet. Cap is whooping like it's a Madison Square Garden concert and Barnes is actually smiling with his face still wet. Tony has no idea what is up with their mood swings.

During intermission he wanders the Gershwin halls to clear his head. He doesn't know whether to be annoyed (because seriously?) or relieved (because they seem to be fine) when he finds Barnes and Cap making out behind a pillar.

"This is a very public place", he says to interrupt them, "and also I think this may be defiling a building of great cultural worth."

Cap flips him off without actually breaking the kiss.

"Language", Tony says, and leaves them be.

"Where're Steve and Bucky?" Romanoff says when Tony gets back to his seat.

"They're busy. You know", he says, and then nods when Romanoff makes an 'A-ha' face. "They'll be back. Probably."

They do come back, about four seconds before the start of the second act. As the Wizard of Oz references start coming more often, Tony stops watching the show and starts watching their faces. Pepper has long since given up on stopping him.

On stage, there's a line about a dog named Dodo, and Tony sees Barnes genuinely smile as Cap laughs out loud. Then the two witches have an emotional conversation and Tony stops focusing on Cap and Barnes on account of not exactly crying, he's definitely not crying per se, it's just that the witches are singing a very emotional number and okay, yeah, he may be crying, but so is everyone else. Except Barton. And Romanoff. And Pepper, actually, and Maximoff, and Jane. Not even Barnes is crying now, though at least Cap still is.

Tony grabs Pepper's hand again. She squeezes back.

There's a finale, and Cap and Barnes get on their feet again to whoop and clap, and then there's the curtain call. For whatever reason, Barton claps a lot when the goat man takes a bow, and Romanoff gets to her feet as the creepy headmistress comes back on stage. Finally, the two main characters come on stage hand in hand, and Tony stands up to add an extra whoop to the noise. They were very good. And they made him cry.

Cap insists on going to the stage door after the show. There's already a bit of a crowd outside, mostly teenagers with a twenty-something or two and masses of parents. Romanoff smiles and weaves her way through the crowd with Cap close by, and they vanish inside like they belong there. With acting like that, Tony thinks maybe they do.

It takes him two minutes to realise that Barnes didn't follow Cap inside but is instead leaning, as casually as possible when you look as intimidating as Barnes does, against the edge of the building. Some of the others have already vanished, but Bruce and Maximoff are standing around speaking in soft voices to one another. Barton looks bored. Pepper looks motherly standing behind Maximoff, nodding along to the conversation.

Tony'll be damned if he's getting misty-eyed over this strange family of his, so he goes to stand next to Barnes.

"Where'd Steve go?" Barnes says after a few seconds, voice soft and hesitant.

"Um, stage door with Romanoff", Tony replies. "Don't know why."

"Said he wanted to thank the actors. Didn't realise he was being literal."

"Hm."

Tony doesn't dislike Barnes, and he's not disconcerted by him the way he is by Maximoff, but he really has no idea how to talk to him. Barnes speaks again.

"How'd he get in through stage door? Thought there were guards."

Tony looks at Barnes, and for a second he thinks he can see the young man his father must have met, the friend Cap had way back in the day. Barnes looks, for just one second, like any other guy thinking about something that doesn't quite make sense.

Then he goes blank again, and Tony's left thinking that he's witnessed something rare and precious.

"He's Captain America", he says as if nothing happened. "He probably just smiled and the actors fell over themselves to thank _him_."

Barnes snorts in a way which could be a laugh just as well as a well-mannered cough. "They should."

"Yeah."

The conversation might have continued if Cap didn't choose that moment to come back outside. The crowd cheers and then abruptly falls silent as they realize Cap isn't one of the actors.

"Aren't you Captain America?" Tony can hear one of the teenagers say, not urgently like she wants his autograph but rather like she really is just asking.

Cap rejoins Barnes a minute later without having been mobbed at all. "I used to be an actor, you know."

"We know", Tony and Barnes say simultaneously. Barnes looks just as surprised as Tony feels at this new development.

"They were happy we enjoyed it", Cap says after two seconds of looking between them. "I signed a stagehand's arm 'cause she had a Howling Commandos tattoo."

"Cute", Barnes said, irony just barely perceptible to Tony, and Cap laughs out loud.

"Yeah", he says, looking at Barnes.

Tony excuses himself before they start making out again. He's seen enough of that, thank you.

Just when he turns away, Barnes reaches out and touches his shoulder, very gently. When Tony turns back, Barnes looks directly at him for possibly the first time ever.

"Thanks", he says quietly. "For tonight."

"Yeah, Tony", Cap adds. "Thanks."

This was his objective all along, Tony thinks, but now that it's here he feels just a bit too overwhelmed to bask in it.

"No problem. See you tomorrow, kids. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

As he leaves, he hears Barnes muttering something, and Cap laughing in response.


End file.
